CURTIS HENRY
Assistant Sports Editor
The Bills’ defense appeared to be a heaping mess of unknowns heading into Sunday’s season opener in Baltimore against the Ravens. Injuries to rookies Shaq Lawson and Reggie Ragland, the suspension of Marcell Dareus for the first four games of the season, and the recent cut of veteran linebacker Manny Lawson left four question marks on the Bills’ front seven heading into Sunday.
Yet it wasn’t the defense that would fall flat in Baltimore.
The Bills offense came out on Sunday looking flatter than the Mountain Dew can you left open on your nightstand about three weeks ago. You can check, it’s still there. I know it is.
The offense was only able to hoist a single score on Sunday in what would ultimately be a loss for the Bills, the scoreboard reading 13-7 in favor of Baltimore at the conclusion of 60 minutes. LeSean McCoy was responsible for the touchdown, a one-yard run which came midway through the second quarter and cut Baltimore’s then-10-point lead to three.
The only scoring play to occur in the second half on Sunday for either team would be off of the foot of Justin Tucker, a 37-yard field that split the uprights in the fourth quarter. The field goal was Tucker’s second of the game.
The Bills’ offensive struggles were simply too much for the defense to make up for. The Bills only accounted for 160 total offensive yards on Sunday. By comparison, the Saints’ second-string receiver Willie Snead accounted for 172 receiving yards on Sunday in his matchup against the Raiders. To say the Bills’ offense was bad on Sunday would be the understatement of the century.
The Bills were bitten again by the injury bug on Sunday, losing star offensive tackle Cordy Glenn to an ankle injury in the first half. He was promptly replaced by third-year Alabama product Cyrus Kouandjio, but his absence was apparent as Tyrod Taylor spent the rest of the game with little time to stand in the pocket.
There are some positives to take away from Sunday’s less-than-stellar performance. The defense looked much more like the dominant unit from 2014 than the 2015 defense that, often times, was out of sorts. Unfortunately for Bills fans, neither of those rosters made the playoffs. Nor did the rosters that the Bills boasted for the 14 years prior to that.
Yet Sunday’s defensive unit looked dominant. If not for a 66-yard Mike Wallace touchdown that ultimately proved the difference, the Bills’ defensive unit played more than well enough to win. If dominant performances ensue in the coming weeks, there is no telling how good this defense could be upon the returns of Shaq Lawson, who is expected back between weeks six and eight, and Marcell Dareus, who will return week five.
The final verdict?
Week one was sloppy, but there’s still a lot of hope and a lot of football left to play in Buffalo. The defense looked great. There are reasons to hope that, if Greg Roman’s offensive unit gets it together, the Bills can finally put an end to the longest current playoff drought in all of sports.